Salmon

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This is not your parents’ Chinese restaurant. Forget the red vinyl booths, papier-mâché dragons and rice-paper lanterns hanging everywhere. And don’t expect the kitschy plates or pots of tea. It is a minor detail, but it says everything. The fortune cookies are delicious. Instead of the usual break-your-teeth perfunctory after-dinner treat, here they bring fortune cookies wrapped in brightly colored foil that are fresh and have been partially dipped in white chocolate.

I'm not sure where it was on the road of life that I got the idea that health food stores were full of things that didn't taste very good and should be avoided. But I do know where I was when I found out how wrong I was ? the Full O'Life Health Food Market and Restaurant in Burbank. Maybe I confused health food with foul-tasting diet food. Whatever. All I can tell you is that I feel like I've made a new friend, though I'm admittedly late to the party. Full O'Life has been a part of the community since 1959, making it one of the first natural food stores in the region.

Sometimes you can't be too literal when it comes to restaurant names. Case in point ? Bake It Again, Sam!, the bagel shop on Riverside Drive in Burbank. The name has nothing to do with twice-baked bagels, which don't actually exist. Instead it's a play on the line famously not spoken by Humphrey Bogart in my favorite movie of all time, Casablanca, "Play it again, Sam." In the movie, it's all about a song. Here, it's all about the bagel. Making the perfect bagel is more art than science.

Bill Scollon The Castaway, a fixture for more than 40 years -- a run interrupted only by fire and rebuilding -- is arguably "the" place in Burbank for special occasions. On any given night, you'll find people celebrating anniversaries, birthdays, reunions, promotions -- you name it. And why not? The food is good, the view is terrific and the island decor appealing. But the most outstanding feature of the restaurant is not the hanging plants, shell lamps or the aquarium.

Cherie Mercer Twohy If you can't fit a spa day into your hectic schedule, consider a spa lunch hour at Favorite Place in Glendale. Its relaxation magic begins before you enter. The building's exterior is enhanced with trompe l'oeil garlands, hinting at the ambience within. Open the door onto a bower of flowers, chintz and charm. Carefully mismatched chairs invite you to sink in and relax. Tables are laid with cloth napkins and fresh flowers and strewn with silk flower petals.

'Twelfth Dog Night' opens Thursday at Falcon Theatre The Falcon Theatre invites comic anarchy to take the stage Thursday when the Troubadour Theatre Company opens its "Twelfth Dog Night," a madcap combination of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" and the rock 'n' roll of the '70s pop band 3 Dog Night. Songs such as "Joy to the World," "One is the Loneliest Number," and "Just an Old Fashioned Love Song," help tell the tale of Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers and their entourage of comic buffoons.

One of the newest restaurants in Montrose, Portobello’s takes the space once occupied by Havana Beach. The new owners removed the booths and redecorated sparingly with dark wood tables, stone-tile floors and posters of turn-of-the-last-century Italian liquor ads framed on the mustard-hued walls. In spite of paper place mats, it is a more formal restaurant. Pizzas ($8 to 10), like the pizza alla Siciliana, can have roasted eggplant, baked ricotta and garlic, and are topped with mozzarella basil sauce.

The Chris Hopkins exhibit at the Forest Lawn Museum in Glendale is both an homage to our native roots and a silent indictment of the cultural genocide our European forefathers visited upon indigenous peoples. Hopkins’ beautifully detailed oils offer portraits of tribal elders and historical snapshots of tribal communities up the northwest coast of America that reveal the everyday lives and spiritual journeys of native cultural heritage. The first large oil, titled “Columbia River Bounty,” shows a scene at Celilo Falls on the Columbia River of native men “dip net fishing,” a custom still employed today.

Bill Scollon Students of history, hearing the name Tallyrand, may think of the 18th century French diplomat Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand. But if you're a Burbank resident, you think of the Tallyrand Restaurant, part of our local history since 1959. No offense to Charles, but the restaurant has nothing to do with him. The founders picked the name simply because they liked the sound of it. And the rest, as they say, is history. Tallyrand offers good, diner-style American food at reasonable prices.

The year was 1946. The first of the baby boomers was born. The first computer was unveiled. The Flamingo casino opened in Las Vegas and Bob Hope and Bing Crosby were part of the opening night celebration at The Smoke House in Burbank. The venerable restaurant has been serving stars and moguls, tourists and locals ever since. They're celebrating their 60th anniversary the entire month of October. Smoke House prices are decidedly modern, but everything else is pure nostalgia.